Dr. Vikram .R. Lotwala

Background Surgery has become an integral part of global health care, with an estimated 234 million operations performed yearly. Surgical complications are common and often preventable. We hypothesized that a program to implement a 19-item surgical safety checklist designed to improve team communication and consistency of care would reduce complications and deaths associated with surgery. Methods Between October 2007 and September 2008, eight hospitals in eight cities (Toronto, Canada; New Delhi, India; Amman, Jordan; Auckland, New Zealand; Manila, Philippines; Ifakara, Tanzania; London, England; and Seattle, WA) representing a variety of economic circumstances and diverse populations of patients participated in the World Health Organization's Safe Surgery Saves Lives program. We prospectively collected data on clinical processes and outcomes from 3733 consecutively enrolled patients 16 years of age or older who were undergoing noncardiac surgery. We subsequently collected data on ...

It is always shameful to read about plight of doctors roughed up by an irate mob and hospital property vandalised because of alleged medical negligence. And it is heart-wrenchingly painful to read about how innocent lives suffered as a consequence; as such incidents are inevitably followed by agitation by medicos in a show of solidarity. Who can forget that over 40 children died in an 11-day strike (triggered by an attack on one doctor) at Niloufer Children's Hospital in Andhra Pradesh, last year? Who can forget that Singhania Hospital in Thane (Maharashtra) had to shut down because a political heavyweight allegedly died due to medical negligence in the hospital? Often the agitations by medicos go beyond the hospital, the district and have state-wide repercussion. And such massive agitation can never be resolved with threat of de-registering doctor— a path adopted by most state Governments, unfortunately. Similar to Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu and Madhya Pradesh, the Maharashtra sta...